Finding a Home
by fedorasoul
Summary: There's a new girl at Wirt's school, with no memories, no real name, and no knowledge of a previous life outside of her new school. Yet Wirt can't help but feel she's both familiar, and suspicious.
1. Chapter 1

Wirt hurried to school, with Greg following closely behind. The year had just begun, and he was two weeks in. Wirt had found the year to be lackluster already, with Jason Funderberker asking Sara out and them apparently being the power couple of tenth grade. It made him cringe just to think about it.

He didn't blame Sara though. They simply didn't work out, with Wirt's self-confidence sabotaging his attempts to be sociable. At least her and Jason could be happy together.

The bell rang just as he managed to get to his class, the teacher's dissapproving gaze making him shrink into his long sleeved shirt. The only thing that kept him from stammering an apology (and making an embarrassment of himself for the billionth time that year) was the curious look of a young girl behind the teacher. She had reddish-brown hair, with dark freckles and a permanent blush on her cheeks.

"Had your fill yet, Wirt?" The teacher, Mr. Rogers, asked.

Wirt jumped and, embarrassed, quickly walked to his desk to sit down. The girl was still staring at him.

"Now that everyone's here, I'd like to introduce our new classmate. Class, this is Bridget." Some kids greeted her half-heartedly. Others simply stared or waved.

"Wirt, since you seem to be so interested in her, why don't you show her around for the time being?"

Wirt blushed and looked down while classmates around him snickered. Mr. Rogers had always hated him, though he'd never know why.

Bridget, as she was introduced, walked over to Wirt.

"Hi, so your name's Wirt, right? That's what the teacher called you."

"..Yeah. Hi, Bridget. Welcome to Something Something High School. As you can see, it's a _wonderful_ place." Wirt said bitterly, the sting of social mockery fresh in his mind.

"Aw, c'mon, I bet it's not that bad, and call me Birdie, it's what my foster parents do."

Wirt blinked in surprise. "Foster parents? So.. you're not really staying, are you?"

"No, I guess not. So I guess we'll just have to make the time last, right? This is the first school I'll have remembered going to, so it'd better be a good time." Birdie smiled at him.

Wirt gave a small smile back, contemplating what Birdie had just said. "Yeah, let's have fun."

Wirt could tell that everything was about to get either horribly worse, or infinitely better. He wasn't quite sure which.


	2. Chapter 2

History was the last class of the day for Wirt, and inevitably the slowest. The teacher droned on and on about things that were simply written in the textbook, and most of it went in one ear and out the other for him. Birdie seemed to be having an interest in it though.

"Yeah, Napoleon," she scoffed from behind him, "that guy was a real jerk. Pretty short too, I've heard."

He rolled his eyes and suppressed a small smile at her comment. "How would you know? I mean, it's not like you lived back then."

Birdie put on a surprisingly thoughtful frown. "Yeah... I guess you're right. Still, how nice can you be after you raid several countries?"

"Good point."

The bell finally rang.

Wirt slid down his chair and sighed in relief. Even if he was failing History, he just couldn't stand to pay attention long enough to care about which laws were passed whenever, or who became the Queen of England in 1559.

He got his bag and was walking out the door when Birdie spoke to him.

"Hey, Wirt, are you in Band?"

He turned back to her in surprise at the random question, "Yeah, why?"

She looked pleased. "What do you play?"

"Oh, uh, I play the clarinet. Again, why?"

Birdie looked a bit disappointed. "I'm not sure why, but you look like a bassoon player to me."

Wirt froze. The only time he'd ever played the bassoon was in The Unknown. As far as he knew, no one knew about it besides Greg and Beatrice (and a few dozen frogs, but he was willing to bet that they wouldn't tell anyone.)

"Where-where'd you get that idea from?" He stammered out nervously. This was weird, really weird.

"I don't know… You know what? Just forget I said anything." Birdie looked almost embarrassed as she walked past him, like she was hiding something.

"Hey, wait up! What do you mean-" He tried pushing his way through the crowded hallway, but she had already escaped his sight.

* * *

By the time he made his way to the elementary building to pick up Greg, Wirt was exhausted. Many people will agree that Monday is the worst day of the week, but for Wirt, it was Wednesday. Wednesday meant the middle of the week, so it felt like endless days ahead of and behind him.

Greg typically didn't help with his mood, either. Wirt loved his brother, being infinitely more protective of him after the incident in the Unknown, but that didn't mean that Greg didn't get on his nerves a lot.

"-and then Tim said he saw a lion on the playground yesterday! Do you think there's any lions in the Unknown, Wirt? I'll bet there's magical ones! Or a magical tiger!"

"Greg," Wirt began tiredly, "please, can we keep quiet for the rest of the walk back? I'm trying to figure out some things."

Greg blinked up at him. "Figure out things? Like what?"

"Well, there's this new girl at our school, which is pretty normal right? But then, today, she asked if I played the bassoon." Wirt explained, hoping that somehow his brother would be able to make sense of this mess, even if he usually didn't.

"Did you say yes?" Greg asked, growing more excited by the second, as if he knew what Wirt was already thinking.

"Well... no. But that's really weird right? I mean, she's never even met me before today, and besides that, the only place I ever played the bassoon was in the Unknown."

They were nearing their house when Greg gasped suddenly, "Maybe she's a frog that got transported here! And she turned into a human because of a magical tiger!"

Wirt sighed. "No, Greg, I don't think a magical tiger was the cause of this. Yet... she does seem weirdly familiar now that I think about it. But... there isn't anyone who could possibly-"

_Yes there is._

As they entered the house, Wirt rushed up to his room. He had some researching to do on the afterlife.


End file.
